The present invention relates to a nozzle arrangement for use in filling a confectionery product into containers wherein a row of adjacent filler nozzles are arranged in a common rack, each of the filler nozzles including a filler housing with one or more inlet openings, a nozzle tip connected with the filler housing for outlet of the confectionery product and a filler piston, which is displaceable in the filler housing to open/close the inlet openings and the tip, wherein the row of adjacent filler nozzles is arranged to activate the filler pistons by means of a common actuating shaft, and wherein the inlet openings of the nozzles and the filler tip have connecting pieces designed to be connected with a hose/pipe arrangement for a detergent.
The invention may be used for filling any confectionery product containing air and consequently being compressible. such as ice cream. sorbet. mousse and the like. The invention will be explained in relation to ice cream but is not limited to that product alone.
Ice cream filling machines with nozzle arrangements of the type described are known, e.g., from EP 0.287,194. The known machines are disadvantageous, however, since these machines are difficult to clean. Problems of cleaning particularly arise because separate dynamic gaskets are used between the filler piston and the filler housing of the filler nozzle. In the tracks in which the gaskets are placed there will be a risk of insufficient cleaning when flushing with detergents with a resulting risk of bacterial growth.
Also known are filling arrangements of the type described without dynamic gaskets, but wherein the piston is produced from German silver instead. However, such constructions will also not permit cleaning by flushing with a detergent. Furthermore. they are disadvantageous due to the risk that the ice cream may be polluted by metal particles.
The known nozzle arrangements are further disadvantageous because a separate adjustment of the discharge of each individual nozzle unit in a row is required. This may cause quite considerable difficulties in obtaining a uniform filling of the containers, which are conveyed in adjacent rows, one row being conveyed under each filler nozzle of the nozzle arrangement. Thus, it is important that a uniform amount of ice cream is discharged into each container.
The ice cream will normally be conveyed to filler nozzles from an ice cream freezer by a well-known method, the so-called time-elapse principle. This means that the time of filling is dependent on the time when nozzles are open and that the amount of filling depends on the pressure built up in feeding hoses during nozzle closure and on the flow of ice cream from the ice cream freezer. Hitherto the uniform filling through all nozzles has been obtained by regulating the flow resistance. which is of great importance to correct filling, in each individual nozzle by inserting a flow valve to control the flow resistance before each individual filler nozzle. This is obviously a technically complicated construction. Although it is possible to regulate the flow resistance by adjustment of the flow valve, the construction will still be very difficult to clean in a reliable manner by flushing with a detergent.
Furthermore, the known valve arrangement will make it difficult to produce ice cream products containing filling pieces such as fruit, chocolate, or nougat. Due to the flow valves there will be a risk that filling pieces, which have to pass through the valve, will instead get stuck and cause a disturbance of the desired and intended flow resistance to which the flow valve is adjusted in relation to each individual filler nozzle.
In the known machines there will further be a difficulty in performing a correct stop of the filling with the known filler nozzles. Thus, it is a frequent experience that under the filling nozzle and in the top of the filled container there will be a conic remainder of ice cream, a so-called snip. The conic ice cream mass may drop from the filler nozzle tip onto apparatuses underneath before a subsequent container is brought into position under a filler nozzle. Thus, this results in a pollution risk.
Furthermore, the upright conic projection in the filled container will be undesirable in consideration of the aesthetic appearance of the ice product produced. The conic projection may also be undesirable in the ice product formed in the container as there may arise problems with subsequent placement of chocolate and garnish on top of the ice cream or in subsequent placement of a lid on the container.
Furthermore, the formed snip may cause a disturbance in a pattern when producing ice cream products with different tastes/colours in the ice cream , which is introduced into the filler nozzle through different cream inlet openings.
It is the object of the present invention to remedy the disadvantages of the known filling arrangements and to provide a nozzle arrangement that is easy to clean and which permits at the same time a correct filling of containers with an ice cream, which may contain filling pieces. e.g., of fruit. chocolate or nougat.